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Freedom Shrine dedicated at middle school

Richmond Hill Middle School students examine the documents of the Freedom Shrine.

Rick Gardner opened his remarks at the unveiling of a Freedom Shrine donated by the Exchange Club to the Richmond Hill Middle School Monday by saying he hoped to shed some light on something those who live in the United States enjoy in great abundance – freedoms.

“...freedom isn’t given automatically… there are people who work long and hard to give us these freedoms,” the former Bryan County Commissioner, career solider, member of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, and past president of the Bryan County Republican Party said.

Freedom of thought, speech, career and religion were a few Gardner mentioned.

“For nearly all of us the precious gift of freedom has come free of charge,” he said. “But for others there has been a price. Perhaps you know someone who has paid or is paying for our freedom; a soldier, a sailor, a Marine, airman or Coast Guard person. The men and women of our armed forces are one example of how some people dedicate a part of our lives to protect our freedom.”

Gardner went on to give examples of how documents contained in the Freedom Shrine such as the Mayflower Compact, Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill Rights and others were created by people who were willing to go to extraordinary measures to create and protect freedom.

More than 40 years ago the Exchange Club of America first assembled the Freedom Shrine with the purpose of so that Americans, especially young Americans, could see for themselves the real cost of freedom Gardner said.

To date thousands of Freedom Shrines have dedicated by Exchange Clubs throughout the United States to schools, libraries, universities, government buildings and other locations. The Richmond Hill Exchange Club has placed them in every school in south Bryan County as well as the Bryan County Administrative Building.

Those shrines consist of 28 individual laminated plaques displaying historical documents that were photographically reproduced from the originals to be used to study American history.

“If you look hard at those documents, study them, understand them and use your imagination, those Freedom Shrine plaques become transparent,” Gardner said. “They magically turn into to wondrous windows through the centuries to our nation’s past.”

School principal William McGrath urged the students to not try to read all the documents at one time but to go slowly.

“Read them piecemeal and like Mr. Gardner said, …think about what happened in the past when these documents were written – where were these people, what was going on, what they had to go through to make things happen for you and for all of us,” McGrath said.

“The Exchange Club is proud of the Freedom Shrine. It is hoped that you will (be) too,” Gardner told the students and teachers.